Eureka City Council advances Chinn’s shelter proposal

A man rests on a low stack of boards on the Mercer-Fraser Company lot across from the St. Vincent de Paul Free Dining Facility on Tuesday. The lot may become a temporary shelter site with large shipping containers modified for sleeping.
Shaun Walker — The Times-Standard

Long shipping containers that appear to be in the process of having doors and windows added sit on the proposed site of the temporary homeless shelter at West Third and Commercial streets in Eureka.
Shaun Walker — The Times-Standard

A temporary shelter proposal from philanthropist Betty Chinn was advanced Tuesday by the Eureka City Council in a 4-1 vote as a third site where up to 40 homeless people can go if they are forced to leave the Palco Marsh next month.

The location at the intersection of West Third and Commercial streets in Eureka would join a city-owned parking lot at Koster and Washington streets and the St. Vincent de Paul facility on West Third Street as possible temporary shelter sites where displaced people can sleep or warm themselves.

With Mayor Frank Jager absent, Councilwoman Linda Atkins led the meeting, and the only dissenting voice on the Chinn proposal was Councilwoman Melinda Ciarabellini.

Councilwoman Marian Brady said the project helps address a problem that has defied a solution for years and meets the immediate need of providing space to people who will not have the marsh as an option in less than two weeks.

“It’s more than anybody else has done,” Brady told the 65 people at the meeting.

The council acted after about 25 speakers — including business owners, workers and others with ties to Old Town — denounced the proposal.

Ciarabellini said she opposed the plan because the six-month duration of the project provides too little time to help the people of the marsh find permanent solutions to their need for housing. Others in the marsh will never accept the requirements for staying at the facility Chinn proposes, Ciarabellini said.

Councilwoman Natalie Arroyo said she had to try to answer the myriad voices telling her to address the homeless situation, including a question she frequently hears: “When are you going to do something about people defecating in the marsh?”

Arroyo called the partnership between the Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation and the Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights, or HumCPR, an “unlikely alliance.” HumCPR is a private group dedicated to protecting local property rights.

Lee Ulansey, founder of HumCPR, said he hopes the joint effort between his group and Chinn’s foundation will be ready when the residents of the marsh need someplace to stay.

City officials announced in March that people living in the Palco Marsh area had until May 2 to vacate the property so work can start on the Waterfront Trail in mid-May.

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The Greater Eureka Community Outreach Program is the name of the collaboration between the foundation and HumCPR. Officials with the two groups teamed up to establish a six-month camp in the Mercer-Fraser Company lot at West Third and Commercial streets. The fenced area will shelter up to 40 of the estimated 140 remaining Palco Marsh residents in retrofitted metal shipping containers.

The 40-by-8-foot containers will be split into four 10-by-8 foot units designed for two people each. Each unit will have a locking door, storage space, beds, a window and lighting. Portable toilets and trash bins will be available, and people can use Betty’s Shower, just around the corner from the lot. Three meals a day would be provided, and people in the shelter can access services on a case-by-case basis. Staff would monitor the shelter around the clock.